I love the Jim Morrison connection to Paris, but the history of the city also intrigues me. When Jim Morrison came to Paris in 1971, he was a tourist just as I was 40 years later. Not much of historic Paris has changed from his time to ours. As I looked around the city following Jim's footsteps, I couldn't help but wonder, what thoughts and inspirations did Jim take away from these same things I see today.

This was a great experience to apply the latest digital technology to a 3D virtual tour of Jim Morrison's Paris. The photos for purchase below are 3D photos. You will need a side by side viewer such as the Loreo Lite to see them in 3D. This same viewer can be used to see all 3D photos for sale here, plus can be used to view the free 3D galleries (DCM Friends & Pere LaChaise, July 3, 2011) The photo sets and viewer can be purchased together or separately.

Loreo Lite 3D Viewer

Loreo Lite 3D ViewerThis is the same viewer that can be purchased with photo sets (below) at a cheaper price. The Lite 3D Viewer is a Parallel Format (side-by-side) Print Viewer made of card paper. It also works well as a Computer Monitor Viewer for medium sized images. It folds flat to the thickness of its lenses (7 mm) and fits into a 4R (4 x 6) photo album sleeve. It is suitable for viewing 3R and 4R (optimum) prints, and 5 - 7 inch wide images on a computer screen, which are exactly the way our photos and online 3D galleries are set up!

Jim Morrison's Grave - July 3rd, 2011
It's a rare thing when people from all over the World get together and share a moment for someone that they might not have ever known in life, but regardless all respect and love. I felt overcome with a mutual bond from all these unknown faces as I walked up the cobblestone path to see Jim, more so than at any other time I've visited Pere LaChaise in the past. Even the guards who stood watch over the fenced in area seemed of good cheer and visited with the fans who rallied around the grave.
A blonde girl near his grave started reading Jim's poetry aloud and the fans gathered and cheered her on. Another group of fans sat on the curb out of range of the masses - one sported a guitar and the sang 'Love Her Madly' in an off-key karaoke fashion as the other three sang along in unison. It was really a beautiful scene.

Historic Pére Lachaise Cemetery
Pére Lachaise is the largest cemetery in the city of Paris, France and is reputed to be the world's most-visited cemetery, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to the graves of those who have enhanced French life over the past 200 years. I personally think most come to see Jim!
At the time of its opening, the cemetery was considered to be situated too far from the city and attracted few funerals. Consequently, the administrators devised a marketing strategy in 1804 which organized the transfer of the remains of La Fontaine and Molière. Then, in another great spectacle in 1817, the purported remains of Pierre Abélard and Héloise were also transferred to the cemetery with their monument's canopy made from fragments of the abbey of Nogent-sur-Seine (by tradition, lovelorn singles leave letters at the crypt in hopes of finding true love).
This strategy succeeded and people began clamoring to be buried among the famous. Records show that, within a few years, Pére Lachaise went from containing a few dozen permanent residents to more than 33,000. Today there are over 300,000 bodies buried there, and many more in the columbarium, which holds the remains of those who have been cremated.

Chàteau de ChantillyJim & Pam's visited the chàteau 40 years ago on June 28, 1971. The historic chàteau located in the town of Chantilly, France. It comprises two attached buildings; the Grand Chàteau, destroyed during the French Revolution and rebuilt in the 1870s, and the Petit Chàteau which was built around 1560 for Anne de Montmorency.
The chàteau's art gallery, the Musée Condé, houses one of the finest collections of paintings in France (after the Louvre), with special strength in French paintings and book illuminations of the 15th and 16th centuries.
The library of the Petit Chàteau contains over 1300 manuscripts and 12,500 printed volumes, including a Gutenberg Bible that is part of the collection of over 700 incunabula.
The estate overlooks the Chantilly Racecourse and the Grandes Écuries (Great Stables) which contains the Living Museum of the Horse. According to legend, Louis Henri, Duc de Bourbon, Prince of Condé believed that he would be reincarnated as a horse after his death. In 1719, he asked the architect, Jean Aubert to build stables suitable to his rank. These 186m long stables are considered by some as the most beautiful in the world.

Notre Dame Cathedral
Although it is not documented that Morrison visited Notre Dame, I would be really surprised if he didn't. Notre Dame Cathedral is widely considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture in Europe.
Maurice de Sully, bishop of Paris, decided to build a new cathedral for the expanding population, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Although construction started in 1163, it was not completed until roughly 180 years later in about 1345. Built in an age of illiteracy, the cathedral retells the stories of the Bible in its portals, paintings, and stained glass.
The Notre Dame is the most popular monument in Paris and in all of France, beating even the Eiffel Tower with 13 million visitors each year. But the famous cathedral is also an active Catholic church, a place of pilgrimage, and the focal point for Catholicism in France - religious events of national significance still take place here.
The South Tower houses the cathedral's famous bell, "Emmanuel". The bell weighs 13 metric tons (over 28,000 pounds), its clapper alone weighs 500 kilograms. The bell is Notre-Dame's oldest, having been recast in 1631.
In 1768, geographers decided that all distances in France would be measured from Notre-Dame. One hundred and seventy-six years later, when Paris was liberated during World War II, General de Gaulle rushed to the cathedral after his return, to pray in thanksgiving. In many ways, Notre-Dame was and still is the center of France.
The cathedral treasury houses a reliquary with the purported Crown of Thorns.

Paris Porte de Vanves Flea Market
I can't imagine that Pamela wouldn't have drug Jim to a Paris Flea Market.... Whether you're a passionate collector or merely a lover of whimsical trinkets, a wander through one of Paris flea markets will always seduce and enthrall. The Paris flea markets originated in the 18th-century when chiffoniers or rag-and-bone men resold goods and clothing found in aristocrats rubbish bins, setting up just outside the gates of Paris to avoid fees and taxes incurred within city walls. Today there are two main flea markets that you wont want to miss; Clignancourt and Vanves. We chose to avoid the 70,000 bargain hunters at the larger Clignancourt market and go to the Vanves market this year. The Vanves market is not for fine antiques but rather general collectables, eccentric one-off pieces and curiosities. The market stretches over two avenues, shaded by a canopy of leafy trees.
I found a very cool (but odd) lantern slide copy camera from the turn of the century and was tempted by a lantern slide projector but wisely decided against it because it wouldn't fit in my suitcase.

The Paris Catacomb Museum
There is no evidence that Morrison visited the Catacombs of Paris, also called the "Municipal Ossuary" that was created at the end of the 18th century. Cemeteries were so full at this time that they were starting to be a source of disease to the living since most of the water in Paris comes from open wells. After multiple complaints, the Council of State, by decision of November 9, 1785, pronounced the removal and the evacuation of the cemeteries.
Select underground quarries used since Roman times for quarrying the limestone blocks that most of the city above is built from were chosen for the redeposit of the bodies. After a blessing on April 7, 1786 all Parisian cemeteries were emptied of bones and moved to the underground by a procession of priests with pushcarts. The job took two years to complete.
The Catacombs house approximately six - seven million Parisians, transferred between the end from 18th century and the middle of the 19th century.
Visitors will discover the bones laid out in a "romantico-macabre" decorations. Walls, pillars, and bells of bones are everywhere.
The sculptures of the gallery of Port-Mahon made by a quarryman called "Decure" veteran of the armies of Louis XV, who carved in the wall a model of the fortress of Port-Mahon in the 1700's.

Unofficial Exploration of the Paris Catacombs
There is no evidence that Morrison visited subterranean Paris. Visiting outside the designated area (the museum area above) is not to be taken lightly. Intruders may be prosecuted, or worse. Serious and deadly accidents do happen. There are risks of falling, drowning; being asphyxiated by toxic gases, being electrocuted; being crush by falling rocks, catching any number of infections, and getting lost. The tunnel system is complex, and even though some tunnels have markers indicating the name of the street above, it is still possible for you to get lost. A good guide is essential, and even good guides refer to maps often.
A journey into these underground tunnels has been illegal since 1955, and there is a fine of approximately US$150 if you are caught by the Catacops. Catacops are the official police who patrol the 400-500 miles of underground passages. The part of the catacombs that is open to the public is only a small portion of a dark and mysterious network of tunnels.
Our entrance to the catacombs was a small hole inside of a long dark train tunnel that could easily be missed if you blinked while passing it. Occasionally, drug dealers, addicts, eccentrics, and people who would want to hold secret meetings or unusual parties do illegally break into the catacombs. Those who come to visit Paris catacombs are mostly urban explorers, precisely cataphiles. They would go down for a day, a night, or maybe a week to explore, hang out, take photos, paint murals, create maps, clean up rooms, dig chatiers, and enjoy.
These are photos of our trip down under...